52 Ancestors Week 17: Document

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 17

"Document" can be a noun or a verb and, as genealogists, we should be using it as both! Perhaps this week you share a neat document you've found or write about your efforts to document an ancestor.

The temptation to use Clippy was strong.

    Where would we be without documents? Well, as genealogists we'd be up a creek without a paddle because documents are quite literally our bread and butter. Documents can tell you anything from when a person was born to even their height. Sadly, there isn't any document that can tell you what your crazy uncle Ed's favorite color was or his shoe size. We're getting there, though. It's the Internet and the stuff you upload to it, news stories and social media adventures stick around forever! I probably have stuff from like twenty years ago on some long forgotten corner of the web. I don't invite you all to go looking for it! Besides all the cool stuff is on our sister site, Starbolt Productions. 

    On the genealogy front, you always want to be mindful of the documents you find. I was half joking when I said "Have you verified the source?" in the banner above. You really want to verify things before you attach them to your tree because sometimes a Paolo Coppola may not be *YOUR* Paolo Coppola. Look before you leap or attach a document in this case. That's just common sense.

      I know various documents show up as hints and it's very tempting to accept everything you see as gospel. However, sometimes you might want to think outside the hint box and do a little sleuthing on your own. You never know what kind of documents you might find. 

    This was especially true a few months ago when I found this unlikely holy grail of information. Ladies, gentlemen and others, I present the death certificate of one Antoine Pierre Legault.  Antoine, as you might recall, was my second great-grandfather who met an unfortunate end in 1901 shortly after the birth of his son, Oliver. He was the father of thirteen and husband of Lucie Cadran. He was also a factory worker working in one of the many textile mills in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Antoine passed away due to pulmonary phthisis aka tuberculosis.

    I found this particular document after it was suggested that I should probably try and find things that didn't require a shaky green leaf or one of those blue hint boxes on Familysearch. I figured why not? What could happen? A lot, apparently.

    I came across this document because I was not satisfied with the original death record hint Ancestry and Familysearch originally presented to me ages ago. It had no meat. No potatoes. No substance of any kind. I was not willing to accept a name, date and cause of death. I needed MORE information! The list of names just wasn't cutting it!

Need more meat, yo.

    While the information on the deaths in 1901 did give me his cause of death, his parents and his age. It left out a few other odds and ends I'd have been interested in. For example, stuff like where he was buried would have been awesome. More on that later. 

    Then again it was just a basic report on who died that year in Haverhill. I don't think it was intended to have a lot of meat. So, I shouldn't be too upset.  Either way, I had a goal. I wanted to see if I could find a document in the vast document filled archive that is Familysearch which had more information than what was provided here. While cool, it lacked the explicit details I needed.

    Armed with a thirst for knowledge, I decided to check the Vital records in Haverhill in 1901 to see if there could be anything on Antoine. These records weren't indexed and thus wouldn't show up as hints for anyone until some time in the future. I had over two thousand images to slog through. How was I going to find what I needed?

    Fortunately I had everything I needed for a search on Antoine's page on WikiTree. His date of death was on October 19th, 1901. I just needed to find that date. So, what I did was I put in random numbers into the image viewer until I got close to October of that year. It didn't take long to find his death certificate on image 1209. I smiled. Had I hit paydirt?

    I had to verify things of course. His date of death matched Antoine's. His parents also matched the parents I have for him as well. They were Jacques Legault and Delphine Gourgon. I should note that thanks to some miscommunication at the border, Antoine's mother is forever listed as "Delphine Gourgon Samorette" instead of "Delphine Gourgon dit St. Maurice" on so many documents. Even my grandmother's records had the bizarre misspelling! I digress. Despite the glaring errors, the document was clearly showing this man was my

 2nd great-grandfather.

    Finding Antoine's actual death certificate meant I had more information available than I ever had before. Aside from his cause of death, it had the following bits of information:

* Parents' names.

* Address

* Duration of his illness (About a year, it seems.)

* Place of burial.

    Wait! Place of burial?! YES! This death certificate listed where Antoine was buried and to my surprise it was not in Saint Joseph's cemetery in Haverhill as I had originally hoped/theorized. All this time I thought he was buried in Saint Joseph's with Lucie and the rest of the Legault family. He could have even been at Walnut cemetery. That's two strikes. Turns out Antione was buried in Saint James cemetery! Well, that saved me two trips. 

   

    I should note that I found this document in winter when there was like a foot of snow on the ground. It was a pretty snowy January. It's probably not a good idea to do cemetery runs in the middle of winter anyway!

    Saint James cemetery is a good sized cemetery on Primrose Street in Haverhill. It's also across Little River from Hilldale cemetery, one of the most haunted cemeteries in New England. They actually have night tours for that cemetery around Halloween. I'm not joking. 

    Once I discovered where he was buried, I sought out to make a page for him on Find a Grave. I had enough information to make an entry so I thought I would get ahead of the game. I put in a photo request because I wasn't sure when I would have a chance to go there. Hopefully, I get a chance to visit soon. I just wonder where to start to be honest.

    Most cemeteries, like nearby Saint Patrick's, have people buried by decades. I think I would have to start by looking for the graves in the early 1900s. Or I could just call the cemetery office. I mean....That would be the most sensible thing to do. Still, I hope the photo request is claimed either by me or someone in the area. It'd be really cool and whoever finds it would have my gratitude.

    In hindsight, it is a a sad document to find. Now I can see just what exactly happened to him and suffering tuberculosis for a year is just depressing. At least there's finally closure on that chapter. I created a Find a Grave profile and reunited him with his wife and children. Now we wait. Will I get a pic or will some volunteer take a photo? I have no idea!

   For now, this document has been attached to Antoine's profile on Wikitree and will be a testament to how great things can happen when you think outside of the usual hint box. Sometimes you need to take initiative to find the documents you're looking for. You might yield some amazing results. Ever since I found that death certificate, I felt the need to see what else I can find that hasn't been made into hints. Those stories will have to wait for another day. Finding documents online is a great way to prove facts in your favorite tree. I invite you all to check out your hints and even do your own deep dive into the archives!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 16: Negatives

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 16: There are some negatives to family history... Discovering something "negative" about an ancestor, not finding what you were expecting, and even film negatives. This week, explore one of those negatives. Maybe it will turn into a positive!

Don't be so negative.

        On my genealogical adventure, I've discovered many negative aspects to family history ranging from DNA matches who couldn't see the forest for the trees to stubborn brick walls that seem to be made out of titanium. Some fellow genealogists have even taken to criticizing me because I do most of my work online. I don't really want to talk about those negatives as I don't want to turn the blog into a soapbox or a rant about some DNA matches. So, let's focus on something negative that I've discovered about one of my ancestors.

    Amy's right. When you do family history, you are bound to find something negative about your family. They could be slave holders or they could be total jerks. People were human back then and it's important to remember that as you dig through their stats, court appearances and everything else. It's also important to remember that you are not them. You may have their DNA coursing through your body. But, you are a completely different person with your own thoughts and ideas. Keep that in mind as I delve into some negative things I've discovered about my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo.

    In 2018, I took a DNA test on Ancestry to see how much I shared with my parents and my great-aunt, Nicolina. It was something fun to do and a lot of connections I grew up hearing about were confirmed. Everything was great until I saw something odd in my DNA match list. There were these two women who matched me in the 300 centimorgan range. I had no idea who they were and neither did my father who matched them in the 500 centimorgan range. That makes them likely to be my dad's half-first cousins once removed according to Ancestry and the shared cM project.

    My father and I had no idea what was going on. I went online and asked for help in a genetic genealogy group on Facebook run by Dr. Blaine Bettinger. Some people theorized that my grandfather Marco might have had an affair. I nixed that idea right away. The timing was off and the women seemed to have been born in the 1950s or 1960s according to their profiles. Someone suggested I look at my great-aunt's DNA matches to see how much they matched her and that's where things got interesting!

That is not a small number!

    I asked my dad's cousin if I could see Nicolina's DNA match list. When I did, I saw that she matched the two women in the high 1000 centimorgan range. That....That is not a small number! That is a large number!!! I needed to figure out what was going on because my neither my cousin nor Nicolina had any clue who the women were. I asked them if it was okay if I did a little digging. They said "Absolutely!" and I went right to work. I think they wanted answers as much as I did!

    I messaged one of the women and stated my case. I explained who I was, how much DNA I shared with them and more importantly how much Nicolina shared with each match. I gave them my e-mail address and waited for a reply. I was so nervous and certain that I turned someone's world upside down. What if they blocked me? What if they ranted at me or something? I wouldn't have the answers I was looking for. I wasn't as confident in messaging DNA matches back then as I am now. Sure it's still awkward, but, I don't have these doubts any more. 

    Shortly after I sent the messages one of the women replied and she seemed to be willing to discuss the situation with me. She and her half-sister took DNA tests to see if they could find some roots and if a rumor they heard growing up was true.

Not a Sicilian.

    According to them, a "Sicilian boarder" went to northern Vermont for a job in the mid 1930s and got their grandmother, Louvia Mitchell, pregnant. Louvia passed away shortly after their mother, Joyce, was born and she ended up being raised by her husband's family. 

    Right away I was a little confused. "Sicilian boarder?", I asked myself. Vincenzo may have had olive colored skin but not every Italian comes from Sicily! I explained that my family was from Calabria and Campania. Vincenzo was born in San Pietro a Maida in Calabria! I had no roots in Sicily whatsoever. The match explained to me that she heard that his name was "Vincenzo Ferriola" and that he came from Haverhill. At this point I was down the rabbit hole!

    I sat back in my chair and I was like "WHAT?!" I gathered my thoughts and analyzed the situation. In the mid 1930s, Vincenzo was married to Maria Tedesco and had two small children in Haverhill. Could he have gone to Vermont? According to my father, it seemed very likely.

    Vincenzo worked as a laborer for the city of Haverhill and helped to build roads. He probably got a job in Vermont and went there for work. It was the middle of the Great Depression and in those days you worked where work was available. Then again he was working for the Works Progress Administration or WPA at the time. They may have sent him to Vermont to do some work on the roads. Even in the 1930s it was "Infrastructure Week in America"!

   Unfortunately, this all meant that he cheated on Maria and the kids with a woman in Vermont. I know it takes two to tango. But, it is what it is. Who knows what really happened between those two? We can only speculate. What is known is that Joyce apparently had a hard life and was shuffled from home to home never knowing who her parents were. She was likely the subject of gossip and innuendo within the family. I think this is where idea of the "Sicilian boarder" came from. That is only partially true. Calabria is close to Sicily after all.

   

For reference, Alburgh is WAY up near
 Lake Champlain.

    I also did some research on Louvia and found her in various censuses, marriage to her husband and her death certificate. She died less than a year after Joyce was born from brain cancer. Yikes. That was incredibly sad to hear.

    Joyce's birth certificate had something on it that I found odd. Louvia listed her then husband Edward as the baby's father. I suppose the rationale was that this was supposed to be a "family secret" and that no one was supposed to learn the truth. Well, someone did find out the truth and DNA doesn't lie! It only took what eighty years for the truth to come out?

    After gathering all of the necessary information, it was time to present it to my family. I kind of wish I had flow charts and diagrams. In the end, I just showed them the facts and what I was seeing in every DNA test. Shockingly everyone took it well. Even my great-aunt did. I was taken aback because I was the one who discovered this secret. I asked why everyone was so calm. My dad said "It is what it is." Vincenzo had been gone for a long time and it's bad juju to be mad at someone who died over fifty years ago. Everyone said to basically accept it and move on. It was oddly pragmatic. It's not like I expected tables to be flipped or anything. Everyone involved was dead and like the old adage says "Dead men tell no tales." Their DNA on the other hand....

I still want to know what that dog's name was.

    Nicolina did ask me an interesting question, though. She asked me if Vincenzo would have taken care of Joyce if he knew about her. That's a loaded question. I didn't have an answer. I want to believe he would have stepped up and took care of her. I think Nicolina would have known more about her father's actions than I would have. I mean she did grow up with him. I only heard stories and this was one untold story that was hidden until the advent of DNA testing. There was no other way we could have known they existed.

    My great-aunt did eventually reach out to Joyce and the half-sisters talked for quite a bit about their lives. I have no idea what they talked about. I only know that they exchanged photographs and stories. Joyce sadly passed away in early 2019 and the only thing I can say is that at least she is at peace, knew what her father looked like before she died and hopefully is reunited with him in the afterlife.

    One thing puzzles me. If he had an affair during his marriage to Maria, did he have a girlfriend after she died in 1943? What about during his marriage to his second wife, Fortuna? The possibilities are endless and questions like that are just going to drive me crazy. So, it's probably best to take a cue from my family and say "It is what it is. Nothing can be done about it." The truth came out and who knows if there are more children out there. It's best not to dwell on such things.

    If there's one thing I've learned from this adventure it's that everyone is human and we all do things we might regret or do at the spur of the moment. I don't know what happened in Vermont. No one really does. In the years since I found out about his dalliance, I've learned to just accept it and move on. Nothing can be done about it. So, why harbor resentment or anger? The only thing we can do now is ensure that history doesn't repeat itself. That goes for anyone who finds something negative in genealogy. 'Nuff said!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 15: How Do You Spell That?

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 15

One of the things I tell people who are starting out in their family history journey is to not get hung up on a spelling. It's amazing how many ways a name can be spelled. (Just visit your local Starbucks, and you'll know what I mean!) Who is an ancestor who might have had trouble with people mangling their name?

Let's jam like it was the early 2000s!

    This week's prompt is a special one because I think Amy tailor made this topic especially for me. I can almost hear her say "Keep telling yourself that, Chris!", That's my own head-canon because we all know how difficult spelling Italian last names can be. Sometimes they can be easy like "Coppola" or "Tedesco".  Other times they can be difficult like my own last name, "Ferraiolo". I've already talked about how hard it is for some people to pronounce my last name. Here's a quick video about how to pronounce "Ferraiolo". It can also be pronounced "Fehr e oh low". I mentioned how much fun I had with substitute teachers regarding the pronunciation. How could I not?! It's hard to resist! But, did you know that even in Italy my last name has several variations? 

Believe it or not, this
is a quality scan!

        In Italy, there are several variations of  the last name "Ferraiolo".  Some of the most common variants are spelled like "Ferraiuolo" and others don't have the "a" in at all. I'm not sure why that's the case. I've been assured that they all basically mean the same thing: "iron worker". "Ferraiolo" is also part of a priestly vestment worn by members of the Catholic church, Hmm....I think I'll go with the cooler iron worker meaning. =) You would too! Just give me a cave and a bunch of scraps!

    As I've been researching births in San Pietro a Maida, I've noticed that the spelling of my own last name was much different in the 1810s that it was by the 1860s. Check out this document for example. That's the birth record for Marcantonio Ferraiolo who was born on October 9th, 1812. Marcantonio was my fourth great-grandfather and on the document you can see his father's last name was spelled "Ferriolo".

    That's pretty curious, isn't it? Wait. It gets better. Marcantonio grew up and married a woman named Domenica Russo some time before 1836. At the time of this blog's posting, I've found seven of their children born between 1836 and 1851. The last names on the documents gradually evolved into "Ferraiolo". The big question on everyone's mind should be "Why is that?"

    I honestly wish I had an answer. Illiteracy on the part of the clerk writing down the names could have been an issue. Maybe they just didn't hear the name correctly and spelled it phonetically? When the person wrote the name, they could have even fused some letters together. It happens more often than you might think! My mother once explained how one time the last name got a "do" at the end because the "olo" part of the last name was blurred into each other. 

    It's honestly hard to say what exactly happened and I'm not here to judge anyone. I clearly wasn't there in the early 1800s. I'm not a time lord even though I wish I was! What I do know is that it seemingly evolved into "Ferraiolo" by the time my second great-grandfather was born in 1868....only for it to get consistently misspelled once my family came to America. That's where things got interesting!!

Vincenzo e Maria

    While Marco never went to America, his son Vincenzo definitely did. Several times in fact! I have found his last name spelled in many different ways before I even found him in the 1930 US census. Check this out:

1. In 1913, he was listed as "Vincenzo Ferrajolo" on a ship manifest when he was traveling to visit his aunt, Concetta.

2. His World War I draft card had his last name spelled "Ferreiolo".

    I think we can all agree that those are some fascinating spelling variations. Since they are already in the documents, they have been transcribed to reflect what was seen on paper even though the information could be incorrect. The misspellings would transfer over as hints and that can cause a bit of a headache while you look for your ancestor with an unique last name! Can it be corrected? Oh, yes it can!

I promise to use this power for awesome.

    Websites like Familysearch and Ancestry allow users to make corrections to documents. After all we're all only human. Most of us, anyway. We humans tend to make mistakes and stuff gets transcribed incorrectly. It's all good because you can correct the spellings of certain last names on those sites. When you do so, it becomes SO much easier to search. Your descendants and anyone researching your family will thank you later. Trust me.

    Remember last week when I talked about how I found Vincenzo with his last name as "Ferialo" in the 1950 US census? Well, I changed the name on NARA to "Ferraiolo" and now when I search for "Ferraiolo" on the site he pops up along with my grandfather AND my father.  I'll have to make the same corrections on Ancestry and Familysearch when the time comes. It's no big deal.  I did make sure to note the enumeration district and everything. As of this blog's posting, Massachusetts hasn't been made available for indexing. Guess what I'm going to do once it does!

    Speaking of Ancestry, you'd think I'd have had to have fixed "Ferraiolo" as the last name was misspelled in the 1930 and 1940 US census. I didn't! My cousin, Mary Tedesco, actually fixed the spellings back in 2011. For that I have to thank her. It means so much to me! Grazie, cugina! =D

Too bad the misspelling's still
there. Sigh...

    I will admit that my last name still has people scratching their heads over the spelling and pronunciation. I take it in stride and calmly spell it out for them if I need to. All of the vowels can trip people up and that's not including the fact that "a" is somehow silent when you say my name out loud!

    I have noticed a few things, though. When people with my last name come to America, they tend to change it into something a little different. No, they didn't change it at Ellis Island. Get away from here with that line of thinking. 

    My second great-grandfather, Marco, had a brother named Giovanni and for whatever reason he changed his last name from "Ferraiolo" to "Ferriola". The unique spelling was passed down to his children, grandchildren and more down the line. It was....strange to say the least.

    I was only able to figure out that he was a "Ferraiolo" after noticing how closely related DNA matches were to my great-aunt. I think they were somewhere in the 200s range. Then I found his death certificate in Philadelphia. His parents were listed as Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Caterina Campisano, my 3rd great-grandparents. And his birthplace was listed as San Pietro a Maida. Did my spider-sense go off? Oh, yeah. It was buzzing a blue streak! Were the names misspelled? Yes. And I corrected the  Call that luck. If my great-aunt didn't take a DNA test, I probably wouldn't have figured it all out. Or at the very least had a bit of trouble. 

    So, what do you do if you have these variants? Well, you should search by every variant you can think of. Use wildcards! The possibilities are endless. I was lucky with the 1930 and 1940 census. Someone else might not be so lucky and it's important to keep that in mind. When you do search, try searching by variations or even their last known address. The results might surprise you!

    At the end of the day, it's important to remember that you should search for last name variants. There's more than one way to spell a last name! In my case, I've been dealing with different variations of "Ferraiolo" my whole life. It's just how it is. I'm sure other people have had the same issues with their own last names. Does it make it a challenge to research? Probably. But, there's some satisfaction in connecting people regardless of the spelling. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 14: Check It Out

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 14 (and the monthly theme for April) is "Check It Out." We often use this phrase when we want someone to pay attention to something neat. ("Hey! Check it out!") It's also something you do with some library books. What does that inspire you to write about?

Tell me, Doctor. Where are we going this time?

    A  funny mechanical wheezing sound heralds your arrival and a blue 1950s style British police box materializes in the middle of downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts. You step out of the time machine and take a look around. It's Haverhill. But, it's not the Haverhill you remember. The year is 1950. Your ancestors are here somewhere and it's your job to find them! Are you up to the task? You bet I am!

1950, the year of the art-deco 
humans. Crazy, man. *snaps fingers*

    That was pretty much how I felt on April 1st, 2022 because that was when the 1950 census became available for everyone to check out. For seventy-two years, the contents of the census was safely guarded by National Archives and Records Administration aka NARA. When clock struck midnight on April 1st, the census became available on their website and millions of people around the Internet descended upon the archive. It's a miracle no one crashed the site! It really is!

    For me, this was a long time coming. Who could I find in the census? I already knew my parents, both sets of grandparents and more would be in the census thanks to finding them in various city directories and you know....talking to my parents helped a lot! I was pretty excited! I had the exact addresses for practically everyone I wanted to look for! All I needed was the ED number. The ED number is the number for the enumeration district the person you're looking for was residing in at the time. Thankfully, Ancestry.com and other sites supplied an easy to follow guide to finding that number.

   Basically, you type in an address on this site and Ancestry will provide you with its corresponding enumeration district number and you can search from there. Over on NARA's site, you can actually search by last name thanks to fancy new artificial intelligence-fueled name recognition software as well. Twenty-first century thinking used to solve mid-twentieth century problems. Oh, if only it was that simple. In the days since the release, I've found many people. Let's check out what I've found so far!

Lookin' spiffy!

     Naturally, the first people I looked for were my paternal grandparents, Marco and Olympia Ferraiolo. I typed in my last name into NARA's search engine and to my utter surprise it was spelled correctly in the census! I had a great  big laugh at that because in the 1930 and 1940 census my last name was spelled incorrectly. I sat back in my chair and thought for a minute. I bet my grandfather spelled out his last name for the enumerator. It's the only logical explanation! 

    Marco and Ollie weren't the only ones on that page, though! Joining them was my father who was barely two years old at that point. The three of them were living at 26 Bartlett Street in Haverhill with several people in the same building. My great-grandparents, Giuseppe and Clementina were living there. My great-aunt Louise, her husband and their two children were there as well. You could say it was a veritable gold mine of information. I was very much hyped after finding that discovery right out of the gate. Who wouldn't be?

    I also found that Marco was the person spotlighted on the bottom of the census for the sample line! That was pretty cool to me. I didn't find anything NEW. But, it was still cool! 

    That was all I found that first hour or so after the release. I went to bed roughly a half an hour after midnight as I was watching Amy Johnson Crow's launch party on her Youtube channel. We were having a great time making discoveries and talking. It was fun. But, it was late and I work better when I have a full night's sleep. A refreshed Chris is a productive Chris.

The pics this week are going with a theme.
1950s era!

    The next morning I was refreshed and ready to go. After breakfast I set out to see who else I could find. I thought I would see if I could find some people on my mother's side of the family. Typing in "Felker" on the NARA site was enough to net me a few results. The first one was Austin Felker and his wife, Henrietta.

    They were living where I expected them to be. 73 Margerie Street. Both were working in a shoe factory. In the same neighborhood, I was finding many of their kids and other relatives. The odd man out seemed to be Wilfred.

    Wilfred was living clear across town with his daughter-in-law on Water Street. This, sadly, would be the last census he would appear in as he was seventy-nine years old.

    The next person I looked up was Vincenzo. That was a little difficult. Apparently my luck with my last name being spelled correctly ran out because Vincenzo was in the census as "James Ferialo". The enumerator spelled his name phonetically. I shook my head a bit. Not to worry. All is not lost!

    On the NARA website, it gives the user an opportunity to correct the name and any mistakes you find on the census for free. I'm not sure if this will transfer to hints on Ancestry and elsewhere, but, it's something. When hints become available on Ancestry, I'll be sure to correct it there and over on Familysearch I plan on correcting it there as well--once Massachusetts becomes available for public scrutiny er...transcription.

    Vincenzo was living with his second wife, Fortuna Grasso on Shepherd Street. Oddly enough no profession was listed for him or his wife. He was in his fifties so he should have still been working as a laborer, right? Who knows? At least I found him and I will be making the corrections as soon as possible. 

  Further down the sheet I saw the Benedetti family, owners and operators of the famous Benedetti's deli! That was pretty cool and still not surprising. 

    I was pretty much done with the direct ancestors in Haverhill at that point so I decided to turn my sights on Newburyport. I had a few people to find there including my mother and her parents. Things there didn't quite go according to plan!

    I found Joseph Laplante and Georgianna Ross living next door to their daughter, Clara on Bromfield Street. At this point in time Clara was divorced from Alfred Hamel and I suppose she wanted to be near her parents for the time being. Shortly after the census was taken, she ended up moving to Lawrence.

    Where was Alfred, though? At first it was a bit of a challenge finding him. Was he living near his "Fix-it" shop? Nope. My mother told me he was probably living on nearby Plum Island. I was like "Okay. I need to find the enumeration district number for Plum Island". 

    The first few tries didn't work. How was Plum Island enumerated in the Census? Well, thanks to some friends of mine in the Genealogy Squad Facebook group, I was able to find the enumeration district. I had to search the main road that went    through the island.

    As I was going through the census, I noticed a few things. Most of the houses were vacant. This makes perfect sense because the houses on Plum Island are known for being vacation homes for people during the hot summer months. The census was conducted in the early spring and not many people were around.

I wish I had a 1950s era pic of him
to go with the theme.

    I also noticed that the enumerator had a bit of an adventure going through Plum Island. The enumerator reported high winds blowing the paper around and even sea gull attacks! This tracks. This tracks very well. The guy should be glad there weren't any greenhead flies buzzing around. The females are known for their sharp fangs. Wildlife on the river gets wild. It's a shame Steve Irwin never visited.

    After much digging through the vacant homes and sparsely populated island, I found Alfred living by himself. It was almost as if he was living in a sort of self-imposed exile far from his family in Newburyport. I knew this wasn't the case. But, it was just like "Wow. You  really wanted to get away from the world didn't ya?"

    At least he had a few neighbors around. It's important to note that there is probably a good reason why some homes are vacant. They could be vacation homes. So when you see something vacant, be sure to check out where the neighborhood is. Of course the person could just be not home....

    That's exactly what happened with my grandfather, grandmother and my mother. They should have been living at Tyng Street in Newburyport. They weren't home. They weren't with my great-grandfather on Plum Island. They weren't with my great-grandparents in Haverhill. They just weren't home. It's a weird and not all that uncommon phenomenon in the 1950 census.

    Normally when this happens a person is instructed to go to the back of the census to see if they could find the person they're looking for. Enumerators would go back and check if the person was home and record them. That would be the end of it, right?

    Well, in this case things went a little sideways. While it was indeed my grandfather's home in 1950, the people who answered the census questions were his sister, Norma and her husband Bernard Bograd.

    That vexed me a bit as you can imagine. Why would Norma leave out her brother and his family? That is just so weird. They were definitely living at Tyng street according to my mother's own birth certificate. I'm not sure what happened.

    My uncle thinks that perhaps my grandfather was on an air base during the census. It's hard to say. He did serve in the Korean War. But, that wasn't until after the census was conducted. Where was he?! My mom joked and said that she was in the space between spaces. I kind of believe her. =D

    All isn't completely lost. Someone out there might be able to find them and they could turn up as a hint on Ancestry or somewhere else. When that happens (And you know it will), I plan on dancing in the street. They're out there. They have to be! I know there's a possibility that they were missed. But, it's extremely unlikely. Time will tell and I won't give up. I will find them!!

    So, that's all I've checked out so far in the 1950 census. I'm sure there are other goodies I can find in Newburyport and Haverhill. I've found a few Coppola families. I've found several other people as well. All it takes is a little detective work. It's also a good idea to work with a group on this because sometimes I need a second pair of eyes on a few things. With that in mind, who have you checked out in the census? Have you made any discoveries? What stories do you have?

The possibilities are endless. We have a new census to explore everyone. Let's go check it out!

See ya next time!

P.S. This blog is part of Elizabeth O'Neal's genealogy blog party! See the details here: https://www.thefamilyheart.com/genealogy-blog-party-1950s/

52 Ancestors Week 13: Sisters

 From Amy Johnson Crow: "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." Any families made up of lots of sisters? Now is a great time to tell their story!

The "Little Old Italian Ladies"! (tm)

        The topic this week is "sisters" and I wish I had a biological sister to talk about as I just have my brother, Jim. His wife, Kathleen and the daughter of a family friend have always been the closest thing I ever had to a cool older sister. Sisters are amazing and there's one group of sisters I would like to talk about this week and an adventure I had with one of them. 

I really want to know where this
pic is from.

    Grandma Ollie's sisters have always been collectively known as "The little old Italian Ladies" to me and members of my family. The Carrabs sisters all lived very close to one another save for Josie who lived across the river in Bradford, Mass with her husband, Ugo Messa and their family. She was the cook in the family because she had the best recipes for almost every single Italian goodie you could think of! For example, her granddaughter has her recipe for a very good and mouthwatering eggplant parmesan! Oh, it's so good! The recipes must have been passed down from her mother, Clementina. I'll have to check my sources on that one! I have been informed that aunt Louise had them as well!

     Jennie was the oldest and I don't really remember her much as she passed away in 1984. But, that's okay. Everyone told me many stories about her and how she came to America with her parents, Giuseppe and Clementina. She lived with her husband, Joseph Zito in the house she grew up in on Bartlett Street. 

  That just leaves Eleanor and Louise and they all lived pretty close to my grandmother. We're talking a matter of blocks here. They were over each others' houses practically every day! Louise and her husband, Arnold Villanucci lived in her parents' old house on Bartlett Street. I remember visiting them and Aunt Ellie quite frequently and yes she cooked. They all loved to cook and entertain guests! It was so cool! She was also married to an Arnold!

     His name was Arnold Vaillancourt  and that Uncle Arnold called me "Superman" every time I saw him! I always laughed at that because even though I grew up watching the Christopher Reeve "Superman" movies, the Adam West "Batman" series and Lynda Carter "Wonder Woman" series, I was always a Marvel fanboy ever since I saw the cartoon "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends". Still, it was cool being equated with the "Man of Steel" even if my favorite character is and always has been "Spider-Man". (Happy 60th anniversary, Spidey!)

  Nothing and I mean nothing would ever stop the sisters from getting together. Not even three feet of snow on the ground.  Their husbands all drove them everywhere since they didn't drive and they never seemed to mind. They even spent hours together at the same hairdresser!

Aunt Louise knew how to hustle.

    Now that I've given everyone a brief rundown on the sisters, it's time for my story. Gather 'round. This is gonna be pretty amazing!

    It all started in the early 2000s and I was in college. My grandma Ollie had just passed away and Aunt Ellie and Aunt Louise were the last living Carrabs sisters. I was a bit bummed because my grandma passed away and we were pretty close. One day my parents and I decided to take Aunt Louise to Foxwoods Casino for the day. Foxwoods casino is a resort/casino owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut. 

    We picked up Louise one Wednesday afternoon and headed to Connecticut for some fun. On the way, my great-aunt asked me if I ever gambled before. I wasn't going to lie. I have been to casinos and I did go to Foxwoods once or twice in my life. Before that there was the adventures in the Bahamas. But, that's a story for another time! And trust me it's a good one!

     Aunt Louise told me her plan was to basically stick with the slots. I flat out told her that was kind of stereotypical for someone to use a slot machine all day. She said "Yeah, that's true. But, you make good money from it. I'll teach you some tricks." I look at my mother and she's laughing. This was going to be a fun day!

Slot machine gods, you vex me.

    We arrived at the casino and as we're walking Louise takes me aside and said to me "If anyone asks, you're my grandson and it's your birthday."

    We laughed so hard. It was just so random! Aunt Louise had the best sense of humor out of all the sisters even though my grandma Ollie came pretty close.  I think she knew I was still feeling a bit sad about the loss of my grandma that she just wanted to make me feel better.

   My parents made their way to the blackjack table as they were feeling pretty lucky. Louise took me by the hand and we headed over to the slot machines. I was no stranger to them as I once had a toy slot machine. We played for a bit and she told me what to watch out for when playing the slots. Things to look out for include:

1. People who hover and wait to steal your machine.

2. People who constantly look at you to see how you're doing. 

    These were all great tips and I asked her if I could use the machine she was using. She said to use the one next to her because it looked like a good machine. I asked her how she could tell. She said she just had a good feeling about it. I was like "Okay...."

    I admittedly had a slow start with the slot machine. I really wanted to try my hand at video poker. Louise told me those things just ate quarters. I asked her if it was like the arcades back home with their video games. She smiled. I wasn't sure if she got the reference. Seriously. The "X-Men" arcade game eats quarters like there's no tomorrow. But, it's so fun!

    I ended up spending twenty bucks and got maybe fifty total. I was getting a little frustrated and I went to use the bathroom. I needed a break. Lady luck wasn't with me that afternoon.

    When I came back, I couldn't find Aunt Louise! I panicked! How did I lose her?!  I was supposed to watch her and everything. I looked everywhere and I found her after a few minutes. The...jackpot noise kind of gave it away.

Meet me at Foxwoods.

    I laughed. Aunt Louise got about a hundred dollars worth of quarters on the machine I was using not ten minutes earlier! I learned a valuable lesson. Never leave your machine unguarded. Wow!

    Thankfully, she split some of her winnings with me because like I said Lady Luck left me a long time ago. We met my parents and had dinner at one of the resort's fine dining establishments. I don't remember what we had exactly but my father told me he did pretty well at blackjack. It's all we could have hoped for!

    Aunt Louise had a great time, too. She seemed content to just play the slots. That was fine. When you go to a casino, you do what you want to do as long as it's legal! The pit bosses will get mad if you try anything funny!

    All in all, it was a great trip with my great-aunt. We didn't really talk family history. That was okay because in the end she made me feel less sad about missing grandma Ollie. We talked about her for a little bit and we realized that she would have wanted all of us to have a good time and we did. The real icing on the cake would have been some of her famous cookies. That had to wait until Easter or the next family gettogether. 

    I admit I was very sad about losing my grandma and I think she knew that. Maybe that was why she palled around with me that day. She wanted me to feel better and she did everything she could to help. It worked! That's really all I ever wanted. It didn't matter if I won a lot at the slots or not. What mattered was that one of grandma Ollie's sisters was there for me and I'll always remember that for a very long time.

Still wish I did better on those one armed bandits, though.....

See ya next time!